Song Analysis: It's A Small World

Singer and song writer Stevie Wonder, over the years has written many songs revolving around political issues. Through different types of critical perspectives, one will be able to see the meaning of his songs.

For this essay I will discuss and analyze the “Five Themes and Two Streams” of popular music, in regards to the song “Little Boxes,” by Malvina Reynolds. This song comes from her album Ear to the Ground, and was released in 1962, around the era of summer of love, where conformity was becoming a easy target for folk singers and musicians. Malvina Reynolds a native of San Francisco, and daughter of Jewish immigrants, was a folk singer and political activist in the 1960’s and 1970’s,where her music put a great deal of emphasis on her text, rather than the formality of the music.

Let It Be” by the Beatles has many references to along with a huge faith based theme. The reason this song was such a good choice for this assignment is due to how Paul McCartney uses his relationship with his mother and plays on the relationship Mother Mary, our saint, has with us. Throughout scripture we see a theme of God and saints helping people in their times of trouble. This song uses that idea and also brings a personal hidden connection with the singers life and relates them to these ideas in faith. This song can really help someone look deep and think about themselves and others in need. The part that brings it all together is the connection felt with the song writer when the deeper meanings are revealed.

According to Statistics Canada in the 2011 census, Midale, Saskatchewan has increased its population by 21.6%. This is an incredible response from the 2006 census where Midale had seen a drop of 6.9% from the previous census. Of course, this may be due to the recent development of oil resources in the area. Nevertheless, it could possibly be due to the tenacity of the farmers in the area that are reflected in singer/songwriter, Brad Johner’s, song, The Farmer’s Back. Midale was incorporated as a town just about 115 years ago. Agriculture has been an important resource since its beginning. Johner grew up in this area of southeast Saskatchewan and writes about his fond memories and rural lifestyle in many of his songs.

Earlier this year (2016), TI, a famous rapper, released the song, “We Will Not”, to protest against police brutality, specifically for black lives. This topic has always been a problem in our nation. The year of 2015 saw the most number of homicides with a total of 1,200 deaths. There was a case about a 17 year old named Trayvon Martin. Martin was just one of the many African Americans shot and killed by the police. He was walking back to his house from a convenient store until he was stopped and accused of robbery. Moments later, Martin was shot in the chest by a clueless police officer, George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was not charged or fined until close to a year after this incident. Caucasians in the United States in this generation

The song “Internationale” tries to bring a lot of pro-activist and more of anti-oppression movement fillings. As the songwriter, and till this day a left-wing activist, Billy Bragg was encouraged to make an English verse from one of the French successors of the song, Pete Seeger. (It is important to mention that Eugène Pottier (born in France) was the original author of the song who composed it somewhere at the end of the 19th century, and due to its popularity, has gone all around different musicians afterward). Of course, Mr. Bragg could not resist the offer, and so he created an English version. It is well known that sometimes the translation changes and varies from artist to artist, yet two (Billy Bragg and Pete Seeger) collaborated so there would be no mistakes or misinterpretations.

“I survived but I payed for it”. These are lyrics from the hit broadway show, Hamilton. These lyrics, from the song “The World was Wide Enough”, prompted the term “survivor guilt”. In a story called “The Seventh Man”, the main character and narrator tells us an anecdote of him and his best friend, K. K dies in a storm with the man beside him and The seventh man spends the rest of his life feeling liable.

Ariel McCullough, Art Education 1600, Autumn 2015, Dr. Smith The Generation of Cynics Green Day is a band that a defined multiple generations. While they are not notorious for their political statements, but more of their wild behaviors, along the way they have made a few songs with some obvious statements about society. One song in particular is very clearly political. This song is called “American Idiot”.

I first heard this song in 2010, and as I was only a child, loved it purely because of its musical brilliancy. Now I am older, I feel a personal connection

This song was started by having all the instruments introduced. Once the performers were introducing the instruments I was able to picture that this song would be very unique and something I had not heard before. Once the list of instruments was finished the song started with the tin cans. The tin cans were laid out in sets with three people playing them. The song starts with the same rhythm and tempo which is moderato. Then it changes to andante. Then one person would stop and the three players would alternate between plays. One performer covers his tin cans with a black cloth and the sound changes. The dynamics are piano and the tempo is adagio. While this is going on there are random beats of the bass drum. Once again there is a major change

Panic! at the Disco (stylized for a time as Panic at the Disco[1][2]) is an American rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada, formed in 2004 and featuring the current lineup of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Brendon Urie.

Interpretive Example Four An artist’s craft allows them to express deeply held emotions. Symbolism and metaphors can hide these meanings, but with music the lyrics often express emotions clearly. These lyrics show not only what the artist feels, but also what they think society expects them to feel, and therefor will purchase. I was recently listening to music, and a song called “Locked Away”, by R. City featuring Adam Levine came on.

For this piece, we danced to "All Through the Night" by Sleeping At Last. Both the choreography and the lyrics of the song coincide to portray the difficulties of connecting deeply with someone. In the song, the soft tone indicates an intensity of feeling and a sense of seriousness. The generally slow and deliberate movements of the piece also indicate that same feeling of intensity and thoughtfulness. When dancing and listening to the lyrics of the song I got the impression that one person was sacrificing themselves for the sake of another person. In the piece, there are some movements where we collapse, cave in on ourselves and fall down. Perhaps, these movements demonstrate a message of hopelessness and a lost sense of direction. However

As the power of a song resides completely in its lyrics, it is no longer surprising that music can be healing, inspiring, or even motivating. After introducing this insight to my life, it became very rare for me to listen to any Imagine Dragons’ song without it leaving an impact on my life and my perspectives. Imagine Dragons is a rock band whose music tends to address both personal and social issues. It’s Time, one of their biggest hits and most influential songs, was written by the band’s lead singer Dan Reynolds during a difficult time in his life. “ I was not very happy with who I was, I guess, and I wanted to make some changes” says the singer in an interview with Purevolume , in which he addresses It’s Time as a poem he wrote to express

I chose this song because it is an artist that I do not know much about , but I do know that this song used to be very popular and I wanted to do some research on it!